A coalition of exasperated local business owners in Santa Monica, California, has hung a sign on the iconic 3rd Street Promenade: “Santa Monica Is NOT Safe: CRIME… DEPRAVITY… OUTDOOR MENTAL ASYLUM.”
The sign comes after years of increasing homelessness, petty street crime, and vandalism that have made the downtown area of the coastal town, once a high-end tourist destination, into an open-air homeless community.
John Alle, a local property owner who organized “a group of retail and commercial tenants, residents, and property owners” into the “Santa Monica Coalition,” said in a press statement that business owners feel that local leadership “is not listening and does not care.”
He added:
Some wanted an even harsher, more direct message. Business owners, employees, and City workers, and 85% of residents no longer visit Downtown. They feel unsafe. Dozens of storefronts are smashed and damaged per month. Three to four addicts die every month in our Downtown, garages, and in Palisades Park, Tongva Park, Reed Park and Douglas Park. …
Tourists, patrons, customers, employees, owners, and others routinely are harassed, threatened, even attacked, beaten, and robbed. Our tourism numbers are way below pre-pandemic. The few remaining name-brand stores suffer “walk-in-and-grabs” every week.
The statement elaborated on the causes of the homeless crisis in Santa Monica:
Contrary to official talking points, which paint the City’s homeless population as down-on-their- luck locals, in reality the vast majority homeless who populate the Promenade and Downtown after sundown are transients from around the State and country. They are taking advantage of the City’s weather, not to mention its tolerance and even encouragement of open sleeping, drug use, urination, defecation, sex, and violent outbursts that disrupt the community day and night.
Downtown Santa Monica was also devastated by looting that took place alongside a Black Lives Matter march in 2020.
